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“I was very upset, but when I saw the video, I have to give it to cops. They were not 100 percent wrong because the thing in his hand looks like a gun,” according to the woman, who said she went to the same church as 34-year-old Vassell.

“The object he had looked like a gun. There were pedestrians and children out there, as officers, they have to follow protocol,” she added.

Police responded to the Wednesday scene after three different 911 callers reported a man pointing a silver firearm at people.

When cops arrived, they saw Vassell, who local City Council member Alicka Ampry-Samuel said had been depressed since his best friend was killed by a cop 10 years ago.

Lavern Chatergon, a 37-year-old home health aid living in the area, said the surveillance footage offers compelling evidence in favor of the four officers who fired ten rounds at Vassell.

“From what I saw in the video, he was threatening people, pointing something at them… the cops were defending themselves, I don’t give them wrong here” he said.

And the owner of a nearby day spa said Vassell has some responsibility for his own demise.

“It takes two to tango,” the person said. “If you don’t put yourself in that predicament, you will not be a victim,” she said.

But others agreed that though Vassell was terrifying people — he certainly didn’t deserve to be killed for it.

“I understand why people were concerned. Everyone was scared. They didn’t know what he was pointing at them,” said Cecily Chandler, 31, and an executive assistant.

“It looked like a gun but it’s not an excuse to kill a man,” she said. “They should have shot him in the leg or the arm. They didn’t have to kill him.”

“It’s sad. He was pointing something, but I really don’t think that police should kill in all instances. He has a mental disability,” said 29-year-old Adana Douglass.

“It’s just unfair,” added 45-year-old childcare worker Mary Jean. “He had no right to threaten people on the street — but he didn’t hurt anybody. He was a madman.”

Vassell was struck by at least seven rounds, suffering fatal wounds to his brain, aorta and spinal cord, according to the city Medical Examiner’s Office.

Medics rushed Vassell – a Jamaica native and father to a 16-year-old boy — to Kings County Hospital, where he died.

His pal, Ortanzso Bovell, 25, was fatally shot by cops on Aug. 7, 2008, while trying to flee officers who had stopped him for driving a stolen car, Gothamist reported at the time. No charges were filed against the officer involved but a jury awarded the family $2.5 million in a wrongful-death civil suit last year.